Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-09-16
dead MANS CANON.
1t was a warm day in March.

he walked on for some distance and
turned up the hill to the left and
took the road which leads down
through Dead Mans Canon.
As he walked down the rough
road he noticed little child play
ing around a pile of wood which her
father had been chopping.
Farther down he saw two girls at
spring, and as the younger drank
from a tin pail she said to her sister,
'What splendid water that is
Two men who we're drawing stone
lett their borses and wentto the girls
tor a drink.
Some negroes were laughing and
talking around a rough house on tue
side of the bluff.
All these things Loften noticed as
he walked, and he also noticed two
men, evidently tramps, who sat on
stone in a lonely part of the canon
talking in low tones, which ceased
entirely as he came nearer.
Loften went on through the canon
and crossed the tracks to the brew
Iery. where he was going to look at
some new machinery.
After he had examined the ma
chine he went up on the roof of the
building, from which there was an
excellent view of the valley.
He watched the river winding
away past cultivated lands and
patches of forest, past sandy flats
and rocky bluffs. He noticed the
tall sycamOres, with their white
bark, scattered over the valley. In
the distance he could see the piled
up stone and the tall masts of the
derrlcks for moving it where a great
bridge was being built, and near by
the cluster OF houses covered with
tar paper, where the wOrkmen lived.
On the other side was the city with
It's towers and chimneys, and over
all the dark cloud of smoke curling
upward. And then there was the
river again, and more flats and more
bluffs and more cultivated land, for
est and white barked sycamores.
Loften went down and started
for home. AS he went up the can
on the men still sat on the stone
whispering together, and again
stopped when he came near.
1t was growing dark. The men
! who had been drawing stone had
left their wagon by the road and
gone for the night. He met one
old negro carrying a pail of water.
There was no ore talking before the
house now. The spring was desert
ed, and the water ran quietly down
the hill. The little girl and the man
who had been chopping wood we're
gone too.
Near the head of the canon Loften
met well dressed man going down
They nodded as they passed and
said something about the bad walk
ing.
Loften noticed that black clouds
were gathering, and when he reach
ed the top of the bluff it had become
quite dark. He took car and went
home, as he went into his house he
heard the roar of distant thunder.
AS the flashes of Lightning for a
second illumlned the lower end of
Dead Mans Canon a well dressed
man lay in the road near the rock
where the two tramps had sat
whispering togetber--but tn e
tramps were gone.
It was still moonlight when the
quarrymen started for their work.
The storm had gone by and the
sky was bright with stars.
AS they entered the canon the
paling of the moon indicated that
the sun would soon be up and the
sky was already growing red in the
east. A light mist tlOated among
the tops of the sycamore trees on
the fats.
Suddenly the men stopped.
Right before them on the road
lay a man. His clothes we're soak
ed by the ram, which had fallen in
torrents. and his white collar and
cuffs were sOiled with mud. His
head was covered with mud and
blood, and an ugly cash in his
throat showed how he had died.
One of the men at once started
for the town to notify the authori-
ties.
The coroner came and took charge
of the body, and men were set at
work to try and discover the muir
derer.
Inquiry at the brewery brought
out the fact that strange man
had been seen there late the pre-
vious afternoon, aud an old negro
testified to having seen him going
up the canon. A conductor on one
of the cars said that a man answer
ing the description given by the
men at the brewery and the old ne
gro had ridden on his car. A gro
GERS man who happened to be driv'
| ing by had seen this man and iden
tilted him as LOften.
When the officers came to his
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